There was a time, not especially long ago, when Valentine’s Day meant panic-buying flowers, overpaying for a fixed menu and pretending it was all terribly spontaneous.
Australians, it seems, have moved on.
Quietly, and without much fuss, romance has packed a carry-on.
New research from Cathay Pacific suggests more Australians are choosing travel over traditional gifts when February rolls around, less interested in token gestures, and more inclined toward time away together.
Not dramatic travel. Not bucket-list theatre.
Just the increasingly rare luxury of being elsewhere.
The airline’s national survey of just over 2,000 adults found about two in five have either travelled for Valentine’s Day or would happily do so. More than half said their ideal celebration involves going somewhere with their partner.
Which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense.
Shared memories tend to outlast boxed chocolates.
Genevieve Brock, Cathay Pacific’s Head of Marketing for Oceania, puts it down to something aviation has traded on for decades: emotional possibility.
“It’s not surprising that Australians feel a strong link between romance and air travel there’s long been a sense of mystique around it, as well as on-screen rom-coms where airports and aircraft are the backdrop for proclamations of love. Australians are increasingly using travel to prioritise connection, whether that is a surprise flight, a long-distance reunion or a romantic escape together.”
Air travel has always had a faint cinematic quality. Hellos feel bigger. Goodbyes linger longer.
And occasionally, if the movies are to be believed, someone runs through a terminal.
Younger travellers are already there
If this shift has an engine, it is youth.
Roughly three in ten Gen Z Australians have travelled for Valentine’s Day, edging ahead of Millennials and well clear of older cohorts, who appear far less convinced that romance requires airport security.
It is less a rejection of tradition than a reprioritisation.
Younger travellers consistently spend on experiences without needing much justification. Dinner is pleasant. Tuscany is better.
Relationship status nudges behaviour, too. Couples lead the charge, followed by the engaged, perhaps unsurprisingly, given that anticipation is a powerful travel motivator.
Singles trail, though aviation has a long history of rearranging personal circumstances.
Love, apparently, travels well
Distance is proving no great deterrent.
Just over half of Australians surveyed said they would fly internationally for Valentine’s Day if the occasion warranted it. Among Gen Z, the figure climbs comfortably north of sixty percent.
Engaged Australians showed the strongest appetite for long-haul romance, providing evidence, if any were needed, that commitment pairs well with passport stamps.
Meanwhile, nearly three in ten respondents said they have managed a long-distance relationship sustained largely by flights.
Airlines may prefer to call that loyalty.
Then there is the grand gesture: about a quarter have surprised or dream of surprising someone with a romantic trip.
Risky? Possibly.
Memorable? Almost certainly.
The shape of modern romance
When Australians picture a romantic escape, they are not imagining frantic sightseeing schedules.
They want slower days.
Beach destinations lead comfortably, followed by nature escapes and somewhere reliably warm settings designed less for activity and more for conversation.
Food and wine regions rate strongly too, which should reassure operators that the oldest formula in travel remains intact: decent scenery, a good meal, and nowhere urgent to be.
And yes, Paris still holds its title as the world’s most romantic city.
Some reputations require no marketing budget.
Not everyone is watching the seatback screen
One of the more curious findings is that romance does not necessarily wait for touchdown.
A noticeable share of younger travellers admit they have experienced or at least entertained the possibility of a flirtatious moment in-flight.
Call it optimism at altitude.
Men appear slightly more open to the idea than women, and singles are almost as receptive as those already partnered, suggesting the airborne “meet-cute” is alive, if not exactly scheduled.
Whether anything meaningful follows is, of course, another matter entirely.
Still, stranger things have happened between boarding and baggage claim.
A signal the industry will recognise
Strip away the Valentine’s framing, and what emerges is something the travel sector understands very well: people are increasingly spending on connection.
Around two-thirds of Australians believe travel strengthens relationships, a sentiment particularly strong among Millennials.
For suppliers, that matters.
Trips tied to emotional purpose tend to be planned earlier, protected more fiercely from budget cuts, and upgraded more willingly.
In other words, they are good business.
Boarding call for romance
None of this suggests flowers are finished. Tradition has a stubborn streak.
But the trajectory is clear enough.
Australians are placing greater value on time spent together than on money spent on objects, and travel sits neatly at that intersection.
Because long after the bouquet is forgotten, people remember where they went.
And who they were with when they got there.
For an industry built on movement, it is a reassuring reminder that the strongest driver of travel has never really been geography.
It has always been a human connection.
Everything else is just the flight path.
by Maysa Punchanit – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 5 minutes
About the Writer.
Maysa Punchanit has never waited for life to become easy. She’s far too practical for that. Instead, she’s built her path the way many strong women do, step by step, job by job, learning something useful everywhere she’s been.
Her working life has taken her through hospitality, sales, beauty therapy and the fast-moving world of social media, where she partnered with some of Thailand’s best-known companies. Along the way, she discovered a steady voice for blogging, warm, direct and grounded in real experience rather than marketing spin.
Being a single mother sharpened her resolve rather than slowing her stride. If anything, it gave her purpose.
Now with Destination Thailand News and Global Travel Media, Maysa arrives not as a newcomer, but as someone quietly battle-tested, resilient, capable and ready for the next chapter.
